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Mass TLC Innovation 2009 unConference needs Innovators

We attended the first unConference last year and felt it was a great event. Bill Warner is to be commended for his contributions to the Boston start-up scene, and the MTLC unconferences and bringing TechStars to Cambridge are just two visible and recent examples.

You could feel the energy in the room last year and there was a palpable sense of community and cooperation at the kick off meeting. But a week later, it seemed that everyone reverted back to their insulated worlds and carried on in typical Boston fashion. The follow ups that you thought would lead to something fizzled, and the momentum died along with the financial markets. This year could be different. There is already momentum for the growing culture of openness and cooperation.

Looking back at the progress that has been made since the initial MTLC unConference, the change is fairly dramatic and encouraging.

Innovation Events have dramatically increased. Web Inno is huge and the Microsoft NERD center is almost booked solid with events most evenings, ranging from Ignite Boston, Tech Tuesday to Music Hack Day.

Programs like Stayinma, have been created to encourage young entrepreneurs to stay in the Boston area once they have finished college

This year the momentum is building and as the economy improves, we need to continue to create a community that nurtures fledgling companies into existence.

But wait, if you take a look at the registration list for the 2009 unConference, you will see that the experts, investors, established founders and service providers outnumber the new startup founders at least 3:1 if not higher. These people already know each other and don’t want to spend the day hearing about each others Nantucket vacation. They want to meet founders with fresh ideas about how to change the world or at least about building something that people want.

I don’t know why there aren’t more new startups signed up for the event, but I do know that it is not really an innovation unconference without a lot of new companies and ideas to fuel a worthwhile exchange of energy and information.

So, take advantage of the opportunity to meet people like Rich Miner and Dharmesh Shah and all the other successful attendees that will be there to lend a hand.

Sign up here and make sure to take advantage of the special deals for students or startups looking for sponsorship.

Hello from WorkBar, a new coworking spot in Boston, located downtown near south station. We have the same enthusiasm for startup companies and providing a place to encourage innovation! We relate our structure to that of a gym and offer a community membership which, just like a gym, offers members all of the amenities of the space whenever they need it, at a low cost of $150/month

The “office space” stigma prior to the coworking trend has been expensive & stuffy so, inorder to give our members that community and interactive feel, we provide our members with fresh brewed coffee daily, soft music, weekly lunches and a wide assortment of networking and social events.

We are working with local startup and entrepreneur groups, to host great networking events, which all adds up to the many opportunities resulting from coworking!

Hey I appreciate the honesty of this post. I have to say that I looked at the list of attendees and had the same feeling as you….a little heavy on movers and shakers who already know each other rubbing elbows. So what did I do about it (as a startup founder)…I signed up! What a great opportunity for me and my company. We, too, have a lot of expertise that would interest the experts, but our list of needs for help is just as huge. I see this as a two way street…sharing our cutting edge stuff with the experts and learning some of what they know. Anyway….I’ll share your post with other founders. Thanks for the encouragement.